Monday, April 18, 2011

//3-D Design in the Music Scene\\

I came across a website that documented the construction of a poster and overall theme for a music festival called XX Merge, which is a 4 day long music festival hosted by the label Merge Records. The label showcased the process of their campaign, which featured elements of three dimensional design in not only the advertisement for the festival, but the stage design and the merchandise design as well. This process is a near perfect example of what I am trying to showcase for my capstone project, how three dimensional and tangible elements in design can enhance the message communicated with the audience, and add additional elements to the designs that make them a bit more substantial than simply relying on graphic techniques.

The design process begins with the poster, then elements from the poster are incorporated with the stage design were the bands in the festival preformed, and then the designs are found again in the merchandise that was being sold at the festival (t-shirts, posters, canvas bags) The art director at Merge Records, Maggie Frost describes the process behind the three dimensional elements that were incorporated in the festivals poster:

“It’s a model of the Cat’s Cradle, a legendary rock club in Carrboro, North Carolina where much Merge history has taken place and where the whole festival took place. I went to the club in the middle of the day and took photos of the stage so that my model would be representative. It worked! It was very gratifying that when fans saw the poster, they immediately knew it was the Cradle. I added the trees to give it a sense of fantasy and to suggest North Carolina in the summer. The model is literally made of poster board and scotch tape.

The trees ended up being realized life-size for the stage by Dave Doernberg, who made them out of foam board in New York and shipped them down, spray painting them glossy red outside the club hours before the first band took the stage.”

Upon finding this information, I was not familiar with the Merge label but I did check them out and they have produced recordings for bands such as Superchunk and Arcade Fire. Although the music this label puts out is not particularly to my taste, I am in absolute awe of the design that they have incorporated for the campaign for the XX Merge festival. This finding has been very inspirational to me and I can feel myself leaning towards a campaign that incorporates these elements of design, something music based would also be great for me as I am highly interested in the collective aspect of record labels and how the identity of other artists are represented through design.

15 comments:

3D design in 2D space is a great looking effect. It always makes me want to reach into the paper and touch the objects, but I know that I can't and that always disappoints me. I too have want to play with 3D but have never used actual objects and photographed it, I've always created them digitally. Looking at things like these makes me want to actually do it!

This is excellent! I'm struck by the designer's comment about how gratified he was when fans instantly recognized the Cradle's stage just from his posterboard model of it. Having someone tell you how "right" your work feels to them is one of the most satisfying things in the world.

First, Merge has done some great collaborative work with Arcade Fire and have beautiful promotional advertising, usually incorporating hand rendered type. They have a book out that is also well designed if anyone is interested, telling the story of their label. Second, this poster reminds me of the diagrams in shoe boxes we did in grammar school. I think its a great way to show a space without photography or imagery that gives you all the information.